Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Lighthouse Knitters Know How to Have Fun

Most folks
would hesitate to schedule car travel in Michigan in January. Not me. I am
January charmed. I’ve driven to the U.P. three times in January to teach. And
last weekend, I travelled to St. Joseph to teach. St. Joe is in the far
southwest corner of the lower peninsula. And I’m in the far northwest corner of
the lower peninsula. I drove down on Friday; the roads for the first 30 miles
required slow driving, but the rest of the way was completely clear. I returned
on Monday, with clear roads all the way. As I said, I’m January charmed. I’d
like to add that I’m not as confident about my luck in February, March, and
April, but that doesn’t stop me from scheduling trips.

I have some
fans in and around St. Joe. They call themselves the Lighthouse Knitters. I was
housed and pampered for the weekend at Emily J’s house. She and her husband,
Andy, made me most welcome, comfortable, and well fed. The workshop was also at
Emily’s house. She had cleared her living room for the activity: a perfect
space with wood floors and large windows overlooking a creek. There was plenty
of room for the 8 workshop participants and me.

This was a
two-day workshop, Spinning Wools of North America, which features wool from
sheep breeds that have evolved or been developed in North America. I like
multi-day workshops because they allow for enough time to really spin, not just
sample. I’d brought with me various wools and preparations. In creating this
workshop, I decided to present the wools in order of how long they’ve been
here: Navajo Churro, Gulf Coast Native, Tunis, Hog Island, Columbia,
Romeldale/CVM, Targhee, Montadale, California Red, Polypay, and Canadian
Arcott. We spun combed tops, carded rovings, and we hand carded and hand combed
some washed fleece. What could be a better way to spend a weekend? Here are some
of the samples I prepared; the swatches show how the different fibers felt
differently (different amounts of stiffness and shrinkage). Navajo Churro
shrunk the most; Gulf Coast shrunk the least.

We also
discussed the elasticity – the stretchiness – of the different wools. Here I am
holding up skeins of 5 of the wools, all wound onto the same size niddy noddy. From
left to right: Gulf Coast, CVM, Churro, Hog Island, Columbia. The least elastic
of the wools (Navajo Churro) appears to
be a longer skein, while the most elastic of these 5 (Columbia and CVM) appear to be shorter skeins. But they
are all the same length when held under tension.

These 8 spinners
were fantastic company for the weekend. And generous too. I am overwhelmed by
the gifts they gave me. Emily had a “swag bag” ready for me in the guest
bedroom when I arrived. The first thing I saw was an included bag of Kilwins' peanut brittle. My favorite! (I managed to not
open it until I got home, but once opened the brittle was gone in a hurry.)
Emily also gifted me some lovely black combed mohair as a parting gift. (I know
just the project it’s going in to.) Kallie gave me a carded batt of a blend of
Tunis and Dorset wool. Christine gave me a set of single pitch Louet hand combs
– perfect for de-hairing various downs.

In addition to
the physical gifts were the bits of information shared among the group. Emily
mentioned a nearby source of both Polypay and Suffolk wool: Shady Side Farm in Holland, Michigan. They have an etsy shop.

Kallie
mentioned a source of dyed Cheviot combed top, Curly C’ewes. This vendor has a weekly Thursday night sale and is on Facebook.

When we did
some hand carding, I shared my strategy – largely based on the technique I
learned from Carol Rhoades. And then Suzy shared hers. I was delighted. It is
so fun to compare techniques. And there are so many ways to card wool! Suzy is
an RN (I think), and she was also able to answer some of my questions about
blood donation – something I used to do on a regular basis until I had surgery
for breast cancer. Thanks to the info from Suzy, I will investigate donating
again.

On Sunday,
Kallie brought several of her hand knitted shawls and cowls to show. It was a “Shawl-and-Tell”.
They were all lovely. I was especially charmed by the shawl with cream, rusty
orange, and natural beige stripes/chevrons.

Ann gave me her
phone number. Why? Well! If you spend any time with me you’ll likely hear me
mention my previous dogs: Taxi and Toby. Both were Dalmatians. I’m rather crazy
for these spotted dogs. Ann mentioned that she knows a lady in Allegan who
raises Dalmatians. Holy Cow! When I’m in a position to get a new puppy, you
know who I’ll be calling…

Did I mention
being well fed? We had a potluck lunch on Saturday, featuring lasagna and garlic
bread. Everyone was scheduled to bring some one thing to go with. Everyone
brought more than one thing. We had side dishes and snacks galore. I tried my
best to be restrained. Sunday’s lunch was Chinese take-out. I had pork lo mein.
And I tried dumplings for the first time. Christine ordered them to share with
the group. I will most certainly have them again.

What a great
weekend. I can hardly wait to visit this group again. Maybe support spindling?
Maybe more on silk? I’ll have to come up with some good ideas. What fun!

One more thing.
Here in Lake Ann, we have loads of snow; we are in a lake effect area. But in
St. Joe, very little snow. See?